Alonso can’t ‘guarantee’ he’ll qualify for the Indy 500

SameBagBlog November 17, 2019 No Comments

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso says there are “no guarantees” that he will be able to secure a spot on the Indy 500 grid when qualifying kicks off at the Brickyard on Saturday.

Electrical problems on the opening day of practice at Indy coupled with a crash on Wednesday and no running on Thursday restricted Alonso’s mileage this week.

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Fortunately, the Spaniard was able to run normally on Fast Friday, when everyone turned up the boost in preparation for Saturday’s grid-defining session.

Alonso’s fastest lap, achieved at an average of 229.328 mph, put the McLaren driver 24th in the rankings, with Andretti Autosport’s Conor Daly clocking in fastest with an average speed of 231.704 mph.

    Another setback keeps Alonso on the back foot at Indy

The order in which drivers will attempt to qualify on Saturday was determined by a draw on Friday, with Alonso’s #66 Dallara-Chevrolet selected as the 42nd car in line. Speaking before learning of the running order, Alonso insisted timing could prove decisive.

“Tomorrow, I think the pick-up order and when you will do the run is going to be a big factor if it’s a hot day,” insisted Alonso.

“So yeah, if we are in the wrong moment of the day, which it seems that the luck will put us this week… There are no guarantees.”

©McLaren

While Friday’s running was partially upset by a 30-minute break following Kyle Kaiser’s spectacular accident and a bout of bad weather, McLaren accomplished pretty much all it had set out to do beforehand.

“It was a positive day for us, and we were able to put the car on track and try different directions on the setup and learn a little bit about the track and the day,” said Alonso.

“Obviously the boost was up today, so the speeds were higher, and it was more a quali preparation than race setups.

“But we had a lot of new tyres from the last couple of days so we were able to do a lot of runs, and hopefully that information will give us tomorrow a little bit of confidence into qualifying.

“It was more about the setup of the car, not necessarily on the trimming or on the aerodynamic side.

©McLaren

“Also sometimes you can solve all the problems on the mechanical side and once you are happy with the car, maybe you start trimming a little bit more.

“We worked a lot on the mechanical grip, and we found a better direction through the day than when we started.

“So yeah, we need to look through the data tonight and hopefully have an even better starting point tomorrow.”

Qualifying at Indianapolis will kick off on Saturday at 11:00 am local time.

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